“Yes, mother; but—he must be ‘diligent and reliable.’”
“Yes, Walter, you must be diligent and reliable. Haven’t I always told you that? And they require ‘Dt. Ref.’; but you are that, thank God.”
“Yes, mother, he’s that all right.”
“Stoffel, don’t you think you’d better write the letter?”
“But it says ‘in own handwriting.’”
“That’s so! But if you write the letter in your own handwriting—that will be better than for such a child to write it.”
Stoffel had some difficulty in making it plain to his mother that “own handwriting” meant Walter’s own handwriting; but she finally saw the point, and Walter was given a seat at the table.
“Well? What must I write at the top?”
“Now, have you forgotten that again? Such a simple thing? Have you got down the date? Then write ‘Gentlemen,’ in business style. It says, ‘responsible business firm.’”
“Yes,” said the mother, “and add that your father had a business, too. We sold shoes from Paris. Otherwise they will think we’re only shoemakers.”